Taper Talk, U.S. Outlook, ECB’s New Strategy: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Thursday, Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• Most Federal Reserve officials agreed last month they could start slowing the pace of bond purchases later this year, judging that enough progress had been made toward their inflation goal, while gains had been made toward their employment objective.
• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists lowered their forecast for U.S. economic growth for 2021, citing a bigger-than-anticipated impact from the Covid-19 delta variant that bodes for further supply-chain disruptions and elevated inflation.
• The European Central Bank’s recent revamp of plans for interest rates is only a first step in implementing the institution’s new strategy, according to chief economist Philip Lane.
• Britain’s exit from the European Union and the pandemic are adding to inflationary pressures that are starting to slow the U.K. economic recovery, two business surveys show.
• Australia’s labor market softened in July, despite the jobless rate falling to the lowest level since 2008, as an outbreak of the delta variant of coronavirus shuttered Sydney and put people off looking for work.

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